Johannes Seidel

PhD candidate (associated)
Old Testament Studies

Johannes Seidel works as research assistant for Prof. Dr. Hannes Bezzel in the Department of Old Testament Studies at the Faculty of Theology at Friedrich Schiller University Jena. After acquiring a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Theology from the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg with study visits to Basel (EUCOR) and Jerusalem (Theologisches Studienjahr), he completed a Master’s degree in Christianity and Culture, with a focus on Old Testament Studies and a minor in Assyriology at the University of Heidelberg. He started his academic career at the University of Leipzig as part of a third-party funded project on West Semitic text amulets under the direction of Prof. Dr. Angelika Berlejung. His research focuses on concepts of nature in the Hebrew Bible, which he is investigating as part of a dissertation project on the cedar of Lebanon.

j.seidel@uni-jena.de
+49 3641 9-42713

Research project

"The cedar tree as a key to the understanding of nature in the Hebrew Bible"

For it the Mesopotamian heroes, Gilgamesh and Enkidu, and also the Egyptian official Wen Amun travelled to the end of the world, exposed themselves to the danger of pirates or confronted the monster Humbaba: the cedar of Lebanon. In the Hebrew Bible, too, the cedar has a special position; after all, it is documented more frequently than the olive and fig plants native to Israel. The wide range of data makes it possible to ask about understandings of nature in a culture that has no designation for “nature.” The conceptions of and perspectives on the cedar serve as starting points to infer understandings of nature in the Hebrew Bible. The work, which is oriented towards the history of religion and tradition, includes archaeological as well as iconographic aspects and takes semantic (description of the cedar) as well as spatial aspects (landscapes) into account. It also deals with conceptual determinations of relationships such as man – cedar, God – cedar or the location of the cedar in the ancient conceptions of the world.

Curriculum Vitae

2024 Acquisition of Basic Teaching Qualification Certificate at the LehreLernen Service Center of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena

2022-2023 Research stay at the Tel Aviv University under the supervision of Dalit Rom-Shiloni funded by the Sandwich Scholarship

since 2021 Research Assistant of Prof. Dr. Hannes Bezzel (University of Jena)

since 2020 Start of the doctorate with the topic: “The cedar tree as key to the understanding of nature in the Hebrew Bible”

2019-2021 Research assistant in a project of the German Israel Foundation: „Between Materiality and Scribal Magic: West-Semitic Textual Amulets from the First Millennium BCE to the Rise of Islam at the Universty of Leipzig

2017-2019 Master Christianity and Culture with the focus on Old Testament Studies and Assyriology as the minor field of studies at the University of Heidelberg

2018-2019 Student assistant in the department of Old Testament studies (editorial work Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft) at the University of Heidelberg

2018-2019 Issuing the Index of the Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft

2016-2017 Polyvalenter Zwei-Hauptfachbachelor: Catholic Theology and Mathematics at the University of Freiburg

2016-2017 Student assistant in the institute for Old Testament studies (work on the Theologische Wörterbuch zu den Qumrantexten, Hebrew tutorage) at the University of Freiburg

2016 Vacation semester for self-studies

2015-2016 Theological Study Program (Dormition Abbey) in Jerusalem

2013-2015 Lehramt an Gymnasien: Catholic Theology and Mathematics at the University of Freiburg

2014-2015 Student assistant in the Institute for Old Testament Studies (work on the Theologische Wörterbuch zu den Qumrantexten)

2012-2013 Magister Catholic Theology at the University of Freiburg

2012 Attending a course on Dogmatics via EUCOR at the University of Basel

Publications

Jotham’s Fable—A Call for Resistance in: HeBAI [in Publikation].

Art. Tel Ănāfā, in: WiBiLex (2025), https://bibelwissenschaft.de/stichwort/32715/.

Art. Golan, in: WiBiLex [in Vorbereitung]

Art. Hermon, in: WiBiLex [in Vorbereitung]

The Cedar Tree and Fears – Substances and Their Effect on Emotions in Rituals, in: ANGELIKA BERLEJUNG/GIDEON BOHAK (Hgg.), Amulets of Protection and Texts for Fears in Antiquity, (ORA 57), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2024, 147–164.

Art. Bet-Horon, in: WiBiLex (2022), https://www.bibelwissenschaft.de/stichwort/15116/.

Art. Tekoa, in: WiBiLex (2021), https://www.bibelwissenschaft.de/stichwort/32691/.

Presentations

Drittmittelprojekte/Präsentationen/Teilnahme an Ausgrabungen

Dezember 2024    Teilnahme und Vortrag an und im Rahmen der DPV-Tagung „Aktuelle archäologische und historische Forschungen zur südlichen Levante“ in Mainz, Vortragsthema: „Welche Einblicke geben die Vorstellungen von der Zeder in das Denken der Hebräischen Bibel über Natur? Eine umweltgeschichtliche Untersuchung am Beispiel der Zeder“

Juli 2024    Teilnahme an der Masterclass „Heisenberg Lectures: The Theology and Redaction of the Tabernacle Account“ mit Professor Nathan MacDonald und Professor Joachim J. Krause an der Ruhr Universität Bochum

November 2023    Vortrag im Rahmen des DFG-Graduiertenkollegs 2792 „Autonomie heteronomer Texte in Antike und Mittelalter“ zum Thema: „Seine Gestalt ist wie der Libanon, auserlesen wie Zedern.“ (Hld 5,15, ELB) – Die Zeder als Zugang zu Naturverständnissen der Hebräischen Bibel“

Oktober 2023    Vortrag im Rahmen der „Grazer Woche“ der theologischen Fakultät der Universität Leipzig zum Thema: „Die Zeder als Zugang zu Naturverständnissen der Hebräischen Bibel – Die realienkundliche Perspektive“

Juli 2023    Vortrag: „Jotham’s Fable – A Call to Resistance“
Minerva Konferenz: „Non-Violent Resistance: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives from the Past, Present and Future for Today’s Democracies“ an der Universität Bar-Ilan

Mai 2023    Vortrag: „The Cedar Forest on Fire (Judg 9:15) – An Analysis of a Nature Observation in the Hebrew Bible“
Konferenz: „Conceptualizing Nature in Eastern Mediterranean Cultures of the Second – First Millennia BCE: The Use of Textual and Pictorial Evidence“ an der Universität Tel Aviv

2022 Teilnahme am Survey des Tel-Shaddud Regional Project

2022 ICDOG in Leipzig, Vortrag „Die Zeder in 2 Kön 14,9 – ein Einblick in das deuteronomistische Naturverständnis“

2022 Internationaler Workshop zu FEARS im Rahmen des Projekts der German Israel Foundation, Vortrag „The Cedar Tree and Fear in Ritual Context. Does the Use of the Cedar Reflect a Concern for the Fears of the Participant?“

2021 ATAG in Erfurt, Vortrag „Widder, Götter oder eine paradoxe Formulierung? Ein neuer Übersetzungsversuch für אלם in Ps 58,2“

2021 Internationaler Workshop zu Textamuletten im Rahmen des Projekts der German Israel Foundation, Vortrag zu „Phoenician Amulet Cases“

2020-2021 Projektleitung des Drittmittelprojekts „Tells & Tales - Biblische Archäologie“ (10.000€), Erstellung einer wissenschaftlichen Podcastreihe, im Rahmen des Wettbewerbs der Hochschulrektorenkonferenz „Kleine Fächer - Sichtbar innovativ!“

2019 Teilnahme am 3. Palästinakurs des Deutschen Vereins zur Erforschung Palästinas: „Inschriften im alten Israel/Palästina“ in Berlin

2019 Teilnahme an der Summer Academy der Universitäten Leipzig, Gießen und Graz: „Malum. Zur Symbolik des Bösen“; Vortrag zu „Psalm 58 und seine Flüche“

2019 Ausgrabung in Israel, Tell Ašdod-Yam (Prof. Dr. Angelika Berlejung und Prof. Dr. Alexander Fantalkin)

2018 Ausgrabung in Israel, Tell Aseka (Prof. Dr. Manfred Oeming und Prof. Dr. Oded Lipschitz)

2017 Ausgrabung in Israel, Tell Ašdod-Yam (Prof. Dr. Angelika Berlejung und Prof. Dr. Alexander Fantalkin)